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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22807354">My Lover of Blood and Milk</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unseemingowl/pseuds/Unseemingowl'>Unseemingowl</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Descriptions of canon compliant violence and gore, F/M, Lots of horny angst, Missing Scene, Nick Scratch is a mystery, Post-Lupercalia, Sabrina is also horny, Sabrina is also very confused, Sabrina is angry, The steamy stuff is in the later chapters, Vague Mentions of Past Abuse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 09:28:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>17,808</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22807354</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unseemingowl/pseuds/Unseemingowl</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It didn’t feel as though it had only been a few hours since she had made her way to the Greendale woods for Lupercalia. As she sat there, shivering in her muddied and bloodied silk slip, it felt as if a completely different person had made her way back out of the forest...</p><p>... Sabrina grapples with lust and trust after her disastrous Lupercalian night with Nick.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Nicholas Scratch/Sabrina Spellman</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>61</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>249</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The Company of Wolves</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Lupercalia was a weird episode, the time jump afterwards was weird too and Nick's life story is woefully under-explored. Sometime, somewhere a conversation ought to happen after a night like that. </p><p>This is the unrecorded hours in between. </p><p>The rating is for later chapters.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There was still blood on Sabrina hands when she made it home. In the dimness of the forest, she hadn’t noticed it, but under the overhead lights on the porch the gore caked under her nails and etched into the folds of her knuckles was painfully clear. </p><p>She winced at the rattle of her keys as she let her in, trying to make as little noise as possible. She wasn’t quite sure if her aunts had partaken in the festival rites that night, but Sabrina was in no mood to be cornered by them and have to explain the blood or her puffy eyes.  </p><p>The mud-stained crimson cloak was the first to go as she closed the door behind her, shoes next – the outfit that had seemed so bold and daring earlier in the night now just felt sad and uncomfortable, the lace of her silk slip scratchy against her skin. </p><p>It wasn’t until she washed the blood off and saw the pink water whirl into the drain that the shaking began. Stabbing Amalia hadn’t been the first time she had used a knife on someone – the nightmares of slashing Agatha’s throat could still wake her with a start – but this had felt very different. </p><p>She had wanted to kill Amalia – for hurting Nick, for attempting to control the both of them – the vicious, unfamiliar fury coming in like the tide, yanking her with it. Even now it was if she could still feel the shock of the thrusts of her knife through her arm, ferocious enough to chip bone and bring the great wolf down, even as Amalia had twisted around, struggling to retaliate. </p><p>Sabrina gagged as the memory overwhelmed her, the stink of the werewolf’s filthy fur and the coppery smell of blood in the clearing filling her nose again, and she barely made it to the toilet before the sparse meal she had for her dinner came back up. Firmly cementing how much of a disaster the evening had turned out to be. </p><p>It didn’t feel as though it had only been a few hours since she had made her way to the Greendale woods for Lupercalia. As she sat there, shivering in her muddied silk slip, it felt as if a completely different person had made her way back out of the forest.  </p><p>She had been so excited earlier after her conversation with Roz, the anxiety over the evening turning into anticipation as she had made it to the woods.  </p><p>The bright ball of heat in her belly had made the entire Lupercalian craziness seem sexy and thrilling rather than the weird school mandated boink fest that she had figured it to be, and that feeling had only intensified as Sabrina caught sight of Nick between the other warlocks, wicked grin in place, the wolf skin bright like snow against his olive skin. </p><p>She had been ready. More than ready. </p><p>And then everything had gone to pieces. He’d lied and almost gotten the both of them killed in the process, but the look on his face after she had stabbed Amalia had been devastating. Stripped of all the swagger and wit he wore so comfortably, it was as if she saw him clearly for the first time. </p><p>What she’d finally found was a lost little orphan boy who cried over the werewolf he had considered his only remaining family. The familiar she had killed right in front of him.  </p><p>Sabrina meant what she had said in the clearing, loving Amalia too much to kill her was no weakness, but she wasn’t sure if she and Nick could go back to the way things were before. </p><p>It wasn’t like there was a book on the etiquette of what to do when you’d killed your would be lover’s rabid werewolf familiar and foster mother. Sorry didn’t really seem to cut it, and her awkward offer to bring Amalia to the mortuary had been refused as well. </p><p>He’d wanted her buried in the forest and his stony silence had been a pretty clear indication that he wanted to be left to it. </p><p>She wondered now if that had been a mistake, if she should have insisted on staying instead of going home and crawl into the shower to wash away the entire disastrous night away along with what remained of the dramatic makeup she had put on in anticipation of the nights events. </p><p>Not that more crying under the spray of the shower or shuffling into her comfiest pair of pyjamas helped her state of mind. Sleep wouldn’t come. Instead her eyes fastened on the moon outside her window, staring until the moonlight blurred everything.  </p><p>At least it did until there was a barely audible knock on the door, the sound of a voice on the other side. </p><p>“Sabrina?” </p><p>“Nick!” she flew off the bed, nearly stumbling over her own feet on her way to the door. </p><p>He was even filthier than she had been. Caked in mud, the white wolf pelt he’d wrapped around himself again stained red, and Sabrina resisted the urge to recoil from the image he made. The reminder it served. Because his eyes were also bloodshot as if he’d cried all evening. </p><p>“Can I come in?” His voice was more hoarse than usual too, and Sabrina opened the door fully to let him in, struggling to find her own words. </p><p>Nick beat her to it. </p><p>“I wanted to see if you were alright.” </p><p>“I’m okay,” she said without any sort of conviction, and Nick reached out to tug at her damp curls, eyes full of warmth despite the miserable slant of his eyebrows. </p><p>“I’m sor…” </p><p>“Do you want to clean up? I’m sure I could find some clothes’ in Ambrose’s room that’ll fit you,” she blurted out, suddenly feeling like the room was much too small with him looking at her like that. </p><p>His hand dropped from her hair and he shrugged out of the wolf pelt instead of answering her. Sabrina had to look away, eyes focusing on a point above Nick’s shoulders. His partial nakedness seemed too graphic a reminder of what was supposed to have happened tonight. </p><p>“Towels are in the bathroom, I’ll be right back,” she rushed out before leaping to her feet and practically running from the room in order to escape him. </p><p>Her urge to fidget hadn’t gone away when he came out of the bathroom in Ambrose’s clothes, looking much more like the Nick she knew despite the added splash of colour from her cousin’s wardrobe and somehow not at all. His entire posture was rigid as if he’d crack on the smallest of impacts. </p><p>“I was hoping I could stay here tonight, I don’t really feel like going back to the academy and the revelry,” he finally said after the silence between them seemed to stretch on forever. </p><p>The thought of Nick sitting alone in the dorms mourning his familiar when the rest of the school came back to Gehenna Station after their night in the woods was just about the saddest images she could think of. Not to mention that everyone would then know that something had gone wrong between them in the forest. </p><p>“Of course you can stay.” </p><p>She was stiff as a board when she climbed under the covers next to Nick. This wasn’t exactly the circumstance she had imagined when she had fantasised about him in bed next to her. In those daydreams she had always had an idea of what she had wanted to do. Now she could barely figure out how to lie down naturally and Nick made no attempt to move closer to her, hovering on the very edge of the bed instead. </p><p>The silence between them felt oppressive, made only worse by the fact that they were both staring at the ceiling. Why had he come here if not to talk? There had to be other places he could go if he just wanted silence. Surely talking was something they had to do. </p><p>Sabrina was the first one to break. </p><p>“You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to, but in the woods you said Amalia raised you, treated you like her own cub. What did you mean?” </p><p>There was a long pregnant pause and Sabrina tried not to fidget, resisting the temptation to roll over and stare at him. </p><p>“It was her protector instinct. She could feel my distress when my parents dies so she took me into the wilderness because I think that was where she felt safe and felt she could protect me as well. But she did a very good job of hiding me. In fact it was a group of mortal hunters who finally stumbled upon me by accident.”  </p><p>”How old were you?” </p><p>”Eight, nine-ish. I was in the woods for about a year.” </p><p>”That must have been… rough?” She said, the word feeling woefully insufficient. </p><p>”That would be an understatement,” he huffed. ”I’d gone half feral after so long with no one but Amalia for company. When I was brought back to Greendale, I had…” He hesitated and Sabrina could practically feel him shuffling through a choice of word before settling on: ”… Trouble integrating with the rest of the community here. I was used to being filthy and aggressive. And I’d gotten used to violent discipline, it was the only way they could keep me in check.”  </p><p>“Amalia beat you?” </p><p>“Not by any human concept of the idea. She was a wolf and was rough with me the same way she would have been with her cubs.” </p><p>“But you were beaten at the academy?” Sabrina persisted, trying to wrap her head around what he was telling her. </p><p>“Not all the time and just until I’d learned to how to use my big boy words again instead of just screaming and hitting everyone around me when I got a meltdown.” </p><p>“And how long did that take?” </p><p>“I don’t really remember, but a couple of months at least. That’s when Amalia fought her way into the academy to keep an eye on me, but by that point, it wasn’t the same. I was embarrassed by having her near me.” </p><p>“Nick.” </p><p>She wasn’t sure what else to say. She’d known that he was an orphan just like the weird sisters were, but the story he was telling was so much worse than what she had expected. Her heart broke at the idea of the little boy he had been, overwhelmed and in a strange place, beaten when he couldn’t handle his emotions. </p><p>“It’s in the past, okay, and it wasn’t fun when it happened, but it’s not something I let define who I am. So please don’t pity me.” </p><p>“I’m not pitying you,” she insisted, finally rolling over to look at him, and Nick looked to the side, catching her gaze. “It’s just when you told me, you were an orphan, I thought you were like me, but you actually got to know your parents a little, and then you had this long complicated history with your familiar, and I…” she trailed off, not quite sure where she was going with what she was saying. </p><p>When she stopped talking Nick’s gaze slid back to the ceiling, appearing to be lost in thought, but his voice was tight when he spoke again. </p><p>“As awful as it feels to say it, I’m almost relieved she’s gone, you know? I’ve known it was bad for a long time. I just couldn’t face it. You did what I couldn’t.” </p><p>“I would have preferred not having to do it,” Sabrina muttered, finally letting her resentment bleed through. “I wish you had just told me.”</p><p>Nick winced, obviously catching the edge to her voice and he reached out to touch her before she could say anything else. His fingers were cool against her cheek. </p><p>“I know. It was stupid. I’m sorry I put you in that position, I should have done Amalia the courtesy of doing it myself.”  </p><p>“So why are you telling me all of this now?” </p><p>The hand on her cheek moved down to her shoulder, tried to tug her closer, but Sabrina resisted, hardening herself when Nick’s face fell. It wasn’t easy to maintain any sort of righteous anger when he was looking at her like that, dark eyes so vulnerable, mouth so soft. </p><p>“I figured I owed you an explanation,” he offered when his first mode of action failed. </p><p>“You don’t. Not really. We’re not official or anything.” </p><p>“Sabrina.” </p><p>Now the sadness had properly given way to frustration, and he tried to pull her closer again, hands less careful this time and the look in his eyes less soft, more… She was tempted to call it anxious. </p><p>She didn’t resist and shivered when his hand carted through her hair, down her shoulder, coming to rest in the dip of her back under the covers. </p><p>“You most likely saved my life tonight, of course you deserve an explanation.” </p><p>“But your life wouldn’t have been in danger if I hadn’t been there in the first place,” Sabrina argued. </p><p>“You’re worth a little danger, Spellman.” </p><p>The words were almost flippant, but the weight behind them was most decidedly not. Like the warm hand on her back, they sent a rush of heat through her that finally seemed to settle low and heavy in her belly. </p><p>But the expression on his face was so similar to the one had had worn after he’d staggered out of the forest with a bloody axe and lied to her. Let her kiss him as if he had gotten away with it. The heavy feeling in her belly intermingled with a sharp jolt of fresh anger at that memory – the urge to pull on his hair and kiss him just as strong as the sudden urge to scratch his eyes out. </p><p>In either case closing the distance between them had never been easier. And yet, both options seemed equally dangerous. </p><p>As if sensing the fresh tension in her, Nick’s hands slipped away, taking the gnawing urge to act with it, and settled on the mattress between them. </p><p>“I really am very sorry, Spellman.” </p><p>Laid out like that, open and trusting, his hand felt more like a peace offering than anything else he had said during the night. </p><p>“I am too,” she whispered, and took the offer, lacing her fingers with his. “Sorry that is.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I'm planning for this to be a four part series with what should be a new chapter once a week.</p><p>Also on <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/blog/unseemingowl">Tumblr</a>. Feel free to come and say hi :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Under the Covers Were You</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>In which waking up is awkward in more ways than one.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>First of all a big thanks to those of you who left comments and kudos on the first chapter. You're the best and thanks for the welcome. </p><p>Secondly Roz is way underutilised on the show, and her and Sabrina need to hang out more.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was the heat that woke her up.</p><p>She was burning up as consciousness began creeping in on her, entirely too hot under her duvets and pinned down to the mattress by something warm and heavy.</p><p>”Salem,” she slurred, still mostly asleep as her hand reflexively fumbled across the covers in search of her familiar to push him off of her.</p><p>He might be a goblin, but the more time he spent as a cat, the more he seemed like just any grumpy stray she could have picked up on the road. Same brazen manners.</p><p>”Get off you stupid cat, I can’t move.”</p><p>But rather than finding Salem’s soft fur, her fingers bumped against warm, human flesh. An arm slung heavy over her side. Sabrina froze as her sleep addled brain finally picked up on who was in bed with her – the night before rushing back in confused and blood soaked detail.</p><p>Something was very different from the night before though. She remembered falling asleep looking at Nick’s face on the pillow across from hers, his eyes falling shut, hand going limp in hers, as he had slipped away first. That was most decidedly not the position she woke up in now, their legs tangled instead of their hands, his breath heavy against her shoulder blade.</p><p>As if sensing her unrest, Nick’s arm tightened around her and pulled her even deeper into his embrace, his incoherent mutter stirring the hair on the back of her neck. When his hips pressed closer, her heart leapt into her throat as she suddenly realised what the hard weight against her butt was.</p><p>It was totally normal for this to happen while guys slept, she tried to remind herself, even as the blood rushed to her face, her breathing going harsh and scratchy in her throat. It didn’t necessarily have anything to do with her.</p><p>It wasn’t even the first erection she had felt up against her. During her and Harvey’s more intense make outs that part of it had been kind of difficult to miss, but with Nick wrapped around her, it was a very different experience. Harvey would always get all tense and awkward when he got hard – Nick was completely relaxed, and their clothes were so thin. Feeling him was almost too easy.</p><p>… And judging from the way her body was reacting; it very much liked the way he felt.</p><p>“Sabrina?”</p><p>Nick’s voice was groggy, as if he was still half asleep, but judging from the way his body tensed, he was quicker to catch on to where he was than she had been.</p><p>It didn’t take more than a few seconds before he began shifting away from her, or his hips did at least, and Sabrina grit her teeth against the wild urge to push back against him. Her body didn't want less contact. It wanted more. She wanted his hands to push under her pyjama top, palm the warm flesh of her belly and reach up further. She could feel her nipples harden as if in preparation for his touch, pulse leaping in her throat.</p><p>“You awake, Sabrina?”</p><p>“Yes," she admitted with a shiver at the feel of his breath on her neck. "I’m awake."</p><p>Sabrina’s body hummed like a piano wire. Struck for a tune and waiting for the next chord, but Nick didn’t move to relieve her suspense. Didn’t even say anything. He seemed to be waiting for her to act, and Sabrina grimaced at the frizz of frustration under her skin, thankful that he couldn't see her face. He was the experienced one, surely he was the one who knew what to do or say in a situation like this.</p><p>But Sabrina was the impatient one. When the tension grew too much to bear, she was the first one to snap, shifting on the bed, just enough that she could comfortably glance at him over her shoulder. His hair was messier than she’d ever seen it, eyes still sleep dazed, but as they stared at each other, the expression on Nick’s face changed. Intensified.</p><p>His gaze dropped to her mouth, and Sabrina braced for a kiss, but once again, he didn’t do what she expected. Rather his hand left her side, fingers skirting up over the covers until they reached her face and gently tugged her lower lip free. She hadn’t even realised she was biting down on it.</p><p>When his thumb traced over her freshly throbbing lip, she shivered, feeling more strung out and wild eyed with every second. Before she knew what she was doing, she’d bitten him, just a quick, sharp nip to his thumb, but it was enough to spark a hard, hungry look in Nick’s dark eyes. </p><p>"Sabrina..." he growled, but that was all he got out before her name was echoed from outside the door in the aggressively cheerful tone of her aunt Hilda.</p><p>"If you're here, rise and shine, love. There's pancakes ready.”</p><p>She didn’t have time to jump out of Nick’s arms before the door flew open, and then they were all scrabbling for cover and it was all ”Sweet Satan, you two,” and ”Hell’s sake auntie, you need to knock first” and a very lame ”Good morning Miss Spellman” from Nick.</p><p>That last part made everything stop for a second, Nick cringing and out of the corner of her eye, Sabrina could see her aunt stare at him with the same perplexed befuddlement as she was.</p><p>”Breakfast is ready when you’re up… <em>Awake</em> I mean,” Hilda finally said after what seemed like far too long and Sabrina had the wild urge to laugh at the five stages of grief her aunt’s face seemed to go through, as she looked them over before slamming the door shut.</p><p>”Seriously that’s what you come up with after being busted in my bed? Morning Miss Spellman,” Sabrina scolded, shoving at Nick’s shoulder, as soon as the door was closed on them again.</p><p>”I’m still mostly asleep. Come on,” Nick said as he collapsed back onto the mattress, half groaning, half laughing.</p><p>”I’m never going to hear the end of it,” she sighed, auntie Hilda was about as discreet as a lawnmower in these types of situations.</p><p>”It’s nothing she didn’t expect hadn’t already happened, Spellman, she knew you were at Lupercalia last night.”</p><p>The silence that followed was loaded, full of all the things that had happened and hadn’t happened on Lupercalia. She caught his gaze flickering to her lips again, but it was like aunt Hilda’s interruption had broken the spell between them. The urge to lean down and kiss him was still there, hot in her belly, but so was the hard ball of anxiousness over what had happened the night before, flaring sharper now that she wasn’t plastered to him and drunk on the feel and scent of his skin.</p><p>He seemed to sense the change in her, the hungry look on his face fading and he shifted on the mattress.</p><p>Sabrina stared at him for a second too long before she realised that he was trying to disguise the fact that he was still hard, and she got out of the bed with a fresh flush in her cheeks, only then realising just how swollen and tacky she felt between her own thighs.</p><p>“You can use Ambrose’s bathroom, it’s just down the hall,” she muttered, staring past him and hurried into the safety of her own shower.</p><p>The water made her feel calmer, less like she was going to fly apart at any moment, but judging from the way Nick paced around when they reconvened in her bedroom, it seemed to have had the complete opposite effect on him. Seeing him so agitated was startling to say the least given how much of what she admired – and envied – about him was how effortlessly still he always seemed to be. Even under high stress.</p><p>“Sabrina.” The pacing stopped, only for his hands to start fidgeting.</p><p>“You should do jewel tones more,” she blurted out, grasping for the first topic of conversation that occurred to her, and for a moment she seemed to have stumped him.</p><p>“I… What?”</p><p>“I didn’t really look at what I grabbed from Ambrose’s closet last night,” she said and settled at her vanity, focusing on getting her hairband adjusted properly. “But you’re kind of rocking that paisley print.”</p><p>“Look, Sabrina, I just have to say something.”</p><p>“Nick…” whatever she had been about to say got lost when Nick came up behind her, strong fingers curling around her shoulder to turn her towards him.</p><p>“You were very accommodating for letting me in here last night, and letting me stay after what happened, and I’m very grateful for that.”</p><p>She forced herself to meet his dark, sincere eyes, only to immediately realise her mistake when he continued.</p><p>“So I just want to make sure you don’t think I was trying to taking advantage by grinding up on you like that. I wasn't expecting anything just because you let me sleep in your bed.”</p><p>The blood rushed to her cheeks, and she just about managed not to squeak when she answered. She wasn’t sure how he managed to say something like that with a straight face, she could barely think about it without flushing.</p><p>“I didn’t think you were taking advantage.”</p><p>“Good.”</p><p>The silence stretched between them, awkward and tense - for Sabrina at least - and she turned away again. It was impossible to act casual as long as she was looking into his eyes.</p><p>“I’d offer you breakfast, but I was kind of hoping I could persuade you to teleport out from here. I don’t really want to have this conversation with my aunts with any spectators.”</p><p>”Especially not you,” she added when he moved to speak again, and in the mirror she caught the faintest kink of a smile on his mouth.</p><p>As he let go of her arm - leaving her skin tingling - it was as if she could see him pull on his usual mannerisms. The vulnerable, naked look on his face that she had gotten so familiar with over the last twenty four hours fading in favour of his usual suaveness, the flirtatious angle of his shoulders. Happening so casually as if he was just putting on another set of clothes.</p><p>“Alright, I’ll leave you to be humiliated by your aunts.”</p><p>“Thank you so much,” she shot back, the sarcasm and the banter at least feeling no different from usual.</p><p>For a second the mask seemed to crack, as Nick looked down at her, a jerk going through his shoulders, as he couldn’t quite figure out if he should lean down and kiss her goodbye.</p><p>He didn’t.</p><p>Instead he took a step back, and moved his hands in the familiar teleport pattern and then he was gone.</p><p>For a second she was tempted to teleport out too, postpone her visit to the kitchen, but she had a feeling that would only make any later conversation more embarrassing. And Sabrina wasn’t one to back down from her aunties.</p><p>Watching from the door to the kitchen, everything on the surface looked as it always did. Though taking a closer look it was obvious that things were not how they usually were.</p><p>Aunt Hilda’s cheeks were a high crimson that had nothing to do with her cooking, Ambrose looked even more loose limbed and laid back than usual – at least someone’s Lupercalia had gone according to plan – and Zelda. Well… Sabrina was pretty sure she hadn’t seen Zelda look so pleased since she had managed to traumatise most of Sabrina’s elementary school class during her presentation on “Take your parents to school” day.</p><p>”It’s no use hovering out there Sabrina, you’re going to have to eat sometime.”</p><p>Sabrina winced; of course her aunt Zelda would notice her even though she was preoccupied with the newspaper. Gingerly she stepped inside and towards the breakfast table, which was, as was usual on a Saturday, piled high with pancakes, fruits and every conceivable kind of syrup along with the steaming hot tea pot.</p><p>With a halfhearted “Morning,” she settled down at the table, piling her plate with pancakes and pointedly ignoring Ambrose’s amused stare as he drizzled syrup on his pancakes.</p><p>”Seems like someone had a fruitful evening last night,” Zelda remarked, peering out from behind her newspaper with what almost resembled a leer.</p><p>“Zelda!” Hilda hissed from her place at the stove, but Zelda mere scoffed.</p><p>“Oh hush Hilda. Such an occasion calls for a bit of teasing.”</p><p>“I had a very illuminating evening thank you, and that’s all I’m gonna say on that,” Sabrina grumbled into her waffles, wincing as Zelda chuckled.</p><p>Hilda came to her rescue with a bowl of strawberries and an interruption.</p><p>“Sabrina love, you got a call from Roz this morning too, asked you to call her back as soon as possible.”</p><p>She grimaced inwardly at how she was going to explain to Roz what had happened. There was only so much about the witch world she could tell her mortal friends, and even to her the situation with Nick and Amalia was unusual.</p><p>“I’ll go see her as soon as I’m finished here then.”</p><p>“Such energy on a Saturday. I wonder what could have caused that,” Zelda remarked.</p><p>Sabrina could just about see her eyebrows wriggling over the edge of the newspaper, and grit her teeth lest she said anything she’d regret.</p><p>When she looked up again, the expression on Ambrose’s face had turned more speculative than amused, and Sabrina got the immediate sense that her cousin was seeing far more than she wanted him to. She tensed for a snide remark, but nothing came of it, he merely turned his attention back to his pancakes, leaving her to their aunts’ attention.</p><p>And with Zelda making gleeful innuendos every second sentence, it was a relief when she was able to escape the house.</p><p>Roz was still in her pyjamas, hair tied up when she opened the door for Sabrina, her eyes widening comically in her head when she saw who was on the other side of the door.</p><p>“Brina, I thought you were gonna call.”</p><p>“I wanted to get away from the house for a bit. Is it a bad time?”</p><p>“No, course not, come on in,” Roz practically yanked Sabrina inside – strong-armed her past her parents without giving either of them much opportunity for saying hello – and into her room.</p><p>“Oh my god, Brina, you have to tell me everything. Did you and Nick…?”</p><p>Sabrina let herself fall back onto Roz’ bed with a world weary sigh, pushing off her shoes and climbing under her friend’s bright blankets and plush duvets.</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“Oh,” the excitement faded from Roz’ face, and she moved onto the bed with Sabrina. “Are you okay, did something bad happen?”</p><p>“I don’t know, maybe.”</p><p>“Talk to me, Brina,” Roz stroked her fingers over her hair, and Sabrina sighed, grateful for the comfort.</p><p>“It was a complete mess, Roz.”</p><p>“You’re going to have to give me a little more than that,” Roz said, fingers not stopping their soft touch through her hair.</p><p>Sabrina sighed, considering how to explain what had happened between her and Nick and Amalia the night before without freaking Roz out too much.</p><p>Bringing witch-business into Roz’ room was kind of a violation of her own rules. Roz’ room was the sanctuary from when the witch-crazy got, well, too crazy at home, but this was also boy trouble-business and Roz’ room was definitely the venue for that. They’d shared every single crush they’d had here, from Roz’ very ill advised crush on Billy Marlin in elementary school – although to be fair, he hadn’t been quite such a big asshole back then – to Sabrina’s first crush on the cute substitute teacher from Canada. Telling her about Nick here was kind of obligatory, witch-nonsense or none.</p><p>“Well,” she began. “Remember when I told you about how Salem is not actually a cat?”</p><p>Roz frowned, seeming confused about where they were starting out, but was quick to rally.</p><p>“Yeah, that he’s like a... goblin…? And he just pretends to be a cat.”</p><p>“Right, so witches and warlocks have different kinds of familiars, and Nick’s became possessive after his parents died. Violently possessive really and jealous of anyone who tried to formed close relationships with him. And given that she’s a werewolf…”</p><p>“Excuse me, a werewolf?”</p><p>“Can we put a pin in that for a bit?”</p><p>“Right, of course, go on. I’m listening.”</p><p>She managed to fill in Roz of most of the situation, keeping the most sordid details of Lupercalia to herself, and giving her Nick’s story in only the broadest of outlines – it didn’t feel right revealing his personal details to anyone else when Nick’s had told them to her in what she assumed was confidence. He hadn't said as much, but she had gotten the very distinct impression that it wasn't a story he shared often, if at all.</p><p>Roz was quiet for a long while after she finished her summation of the night before, for so long that Sabrina began fidgeting again, trying to give her friend the time to mull over the weirdness that she had just dumped on her.</p><p>"You live such a weird life now, Brina."</p><p>Despite her agitation Sabrina couldn't help but laugh at Roz' deadpan delivery, and scooted over to make room for Roz when she moved to climb under the covers with her.  </p><p>“So you're afraid you can't trust him anymore, or something?” Roz asked, their hips and shoulders bumping against one another as they settled in side by side like they'd always did when discussing the big stuff. </p><p>“It’s just that if he lied about this, what’s to say he won’t lie to me again. It’s not like this was some small thing he lied about either.”</p><p>“No, it really wasn’t,” Roz agreed, and then falling quiet. “I’m trying here, but all this witch stuff is tripping me up a bit. Give me a moment.”</p><p>Sabrina nodded, picking at Roz’ bedspread as she tried avoiding staring at her friend to intently, willing her to come up with all the answers and solutions. Out of the corner of her eye though, Sabrina could practically see the gears turn under Roz' frown.</p><p>“Okay, okay, so lets start with the basics," she said after a bit as if discussing a math problem she'd just found the solution to. "You were ready to have sex with him yesterday, right?”</p><p>“Yes,” Sabrina admitted, remembering the rush of heat she had felt when she’d seen Nick in the woods the night before. </p><p>“And would you still be comfortable to do that now. Trust him be the right guy for that.”</p><p>Her thoughts drifted to earlier that morning, the waking up to his scent on her pillows, the feel of his arm around her, his erection rubbing up against her ass. The wild, out of control feeling in her body and her brain as every nerve ending had screamed at her to just kiss him already, get lost in him. </p><p>“I’m not sure, I can barely even think straight around him anymore,” Sabrina confessed. “It’s like I opened the door to allowing myself to think about it, and now I can’t seem to stop again.”</p><p>“So in other words you’re still horny,” Roz said, making both of them promptly burst into giggles.</p><p>“I mean, don’t get me wrong, I sympathise with your struggle. I didn’t get to see much of you two at the dance, but from what little I saw, he seems very hot.”</p><p>“He is,” Sabrina agreed. “And when he kisses me, Roz, I feel so… I don’t know, electric? When we woke up this morning…”</p><p>“Excuse me, this morning?” Roz’ brows flew up at that new information and Sabrina ducked deeper under the covers.</p><p>“Yeah, he came to the mortuary last night and stayed the night with me.”</p><p>“In your bed?”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“And you kissed more?”</p><p>“No, aunt Hilda found us in bed together just when we were about to.”</p><p>Roz snorted, it sounded suspiciously like a strangled laughter, and Sabrina rolled her eyes, feeling her spirits lift a little. Roz had a way of finding the lightness in any situation, and that part at least, had felt pretty normal to what other teenage girls lived through when they were caught with a boy in their bed. Even if all the other stuff surrounding it hadn't been. </p><p>“Yes, it’s been a weird few days,” Sabrina agreed.</p><p>“I can just imagine Hilda’s face,” Roz chuckled, before striking a scandalised grimace – an eerily accurate imitation of her aunt’s expression that morning – and startled another surprised laughter out of Sabrina.</p><p>“It wasn’t nearly as bad as having Zelda making sex jokes at me all morning. You should have heard her, I don't think I knew how much she enjoyed puns before today. It’s double awkward since nothing happened, but I can’t tell her that.”</p><p>“Why not? Why would you having sex be important to Zelda?”</p><p>The laughter on Roz’ face had faded into a frown, the expression that Sabrina was starting to identify as her ‘witch-stuff is weird’ face.</p><p>“It’s complicated,” Sabrina said as way of explanation, not really knowing how to rationalise to Roz that the idea of not having consummated the Lupercalian ritual was somehow more embarrassing than her aunties thinking she had been caught in a compromising position.</p><p>“Another witch thing?”</p><p>“Kind of, yeah.”</p><p>“Sabrina, wanting to have sex with Nick, was that more to do with this witch thing, or was it actually because you wanted to have sex with Nick specifically?”</p><p>“I’m not even sure anymore Roz, I’m so confused.”</p><p>“Horniness will do that to you,” Roz quipped, and managed to dodge out of the way of Sabrina’s half hearted punch at her shoulder.</p><p>“Shag one boy at bible camp and all of a sudden she’s an expert,” Sabrina grumbled, only succeeding in making Roz chuckle, </p><p>“Hey Sabrina, it’s not like you need all the answers right now,” she said once the giggling had subsided and they were both settled back into the pillows. “You’re allowed to think things over, talk to Nick again, see if anything changes. Right?”</p><p>“No, I know that, it’s just that I seem to make myself more confused the more I think about it.”</p><p>“Well in that case you can stay here all day today. We’ll shelf the talk of stupid boys and watch some of the scary movies you like. Do our nails. Get some popcorn and peanut butter M&amp;Ms. That way you won’t have to listen to any more of your aunt Zelda’s weird sex puns either. How does that sound?”</p><p>Roz was describing the usual playbook for one of their girl’s nights, the last one of which had been… Sabrina couldn’t even remember when. Certainly it had been before Harvey and before her dark baptism, before everything had been turned so thoroughly on its head and her worries had suddenly become feral werewolves and lust festivals and demons attacking her in the library at night. </p><p>“I can get behind that.”</p><p>“Great. I’ll get the nail polish, you open the computer,” Roz began to wriggle out of the bed, but only got as far as sitting up, before she looked down at Sabrina again.</p><p>“Hold up, what was the deal about werewolves being real?”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I'm on <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/blog/unseemingowl">Tumblr</a>. Feel free to come and say hi :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. When the Time Is Late</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>In which there are more close talking and more interruptions, and Nick and Sabrina really should go somewhere with a lockable door...</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>All of you guys are the best. Thanks for taking the time to comment and leaving kudos. You're all such a welcoming bunch. </p><p>Things are heating up a bit in this chapter, and I feel as though I might as well change the title to the trials of being a horny teen at this point. </p><p>Also Ambrose is the best...</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She returned to an empty house, no sign of either of her aunties or Ambrose. That last past was perhaps not too surprising – no doubt her cousin was off to recapture some of that Lupercalian magic with Prudence. At least the two of them had barely been able to keep their hands off of each other as of late.</p><p>Both of her aunts being gone from the house was more unusual, and neither seemed to be home the following day either. The stove cold in the kitchen, no fresh tobacco scent from Zelda’s cigarettes, and there was no sound of Ambrose’ music from the attic.</p><p>She wasn’t sure if she’d ever been in a position where she had less of a social life than any of the three remaining members of her family. And without them to distract her, Sabrina’s thoughts had free reign.</p><p>Although at least in some areas her emotions weren’t going quite as haywire as they had been before. Her day with Roz had seen to that.</p><p>Knowing that she hadn’t lost watching slasher films and eating popcorn and doing each other’s nails with her best friend was a relief. After her dark baptism and then the awkwardness around Harvey driving a wedge between them, she had been afraid that their relationship would not have been able to be how it was before.</p><p>As bad as loosing Harvey had been, loosing Roz would have been near unbearable.</p><p>Roz was the first real friend she’d ever had. Her only friend for years before Theo and Harvey had gravitated towards them too. Roz had been the first one in school who didn’t think she was odd or creepy for living in the old mansion on the edge of town with her weird aunties who cut dead people open. Roz was a preacher’s daughter, she knew all about death, was used to coming in the mortuary for funeral services and used her aunt Zelda’s strange sense of humour and Hilda’s love of spiders.</p><p>But even the balm of spending a day in Roz’ company could only do so much when her sheets and pillows still smelled Nicholas Scratch.</p><p>In a way it was no great surprise that she woke up on Sunday flushed and short of breath when she’d drifted off surrounded by the scents she most associated with him – bitter oranges, his favoured ritual incense, iron and fresh mint.</p><p>None the less it was still a source of frustration. Sabrina did not like being ruled over by anyone, not even her own body, and she spent most of Sunday raiding her aunt Hilda’s pantry and picking through the Ambrose’s room in search of a distraction from the constant circling of her thoughts.</p><p>Buzzing with sugar and absentmindedly sipping on a mug of tea, she found herself unable to focus on his more loftier texts of demonic possession and conjuring, and instead just began poke her nose everywhere - trying on some of his more precious robes, poking through his collection of talismans before stumbling upon a library of books and manuscripts she hadn’t seen before hidden in a hollowed out bench against the far wall.</p><p>While some of them were obviously diaries in her cousin’s hand that Sabrina snapped closed again – she did have <em>some</em> respect for Ambrose’ privacy afterall – quite a number of the other volumes were clearly on the subject of sex magic.</p><p>She had a vague recollection that the Aleister Crowley that had gotten her cousin in such terrible trouble had been very focused on that particular kind of occultism, but she had sort of assumed that her cousin had turned his back on the teachings after his entanglement with Crowley had led him into trouble with the  council and then into house arrest.</p><p>Obviously the practice held some merit beyond the simple physical aspects and beyond Aleister Crowley’s teachings if her cousin still held onto so many books on the subject.</p><p>Most of them were in foreign languages that she wasn’t well versed in, Russian, German, French… Sex magic wasn’t a field she knew very much about, and one of the few that neither her aunts nor Ambrose had ever been in a hurry to tell her about despite their positive attitudes towards sex and desire.</p><p>She wondered what Nick would say if she asked him about it. No doubt he would know about it. Perhaps he would even be willing to show her.</p><p>“Pathetic,” she muttered to herself, as she felt the familiar pulse start up low, low in her belly, and dropped the books back down.</p><p>And yet it wasn’t quite that easy to get rid of those thoughts again once she’d let them surface. Even as she left Ambrose’s room and his distracting books. It was hard to forget the way Nick had looked at her when they’d woken up in bed together. No one had ever looked at her like that before.</p><p>It wasn’t anything like the hot headed eagerness in Harvey’s face when they’d had some of their most eager fumbles on his bed. Nick had looked like he wanted to devour her in six dozen different ways and had the knowledge of how to do it well.</p><p>She wasn’t sure if that thought was mostly exciting or mostly terrifying.</p><p>And then there was the fact that she still hadn’t heard from him since Saturday morning. She didn’t want to push him, but it was impossible not to wonder about what he was doing – if he was working through the events of Lupercalia like she had tried to do, or if he had decided to hate her over Amalia after all.</p><p>Or perhaps he was just burying it. After all he seemed to be pretty good at that coping method.</p><p>If she was being honest with herself, Sabrina felt gullible for not realising that all his suaveness and the banter and flirting could only go so deep. No one was that put together without covering up a hell of a lot. And Nick appeared to be unsettlingly good at concealing so very much with a choice flirtation and a twinkle in those dark eyes. A kiss…</p><p>Fired up by a sudden flash impatience and indignation – he couldn’t just stay quiet forever – Sabrina was already halfway through the teleport spell before she realised what she was doing and catapulted herself through the void to Gehenna station.</p><p>The academy was unusually quiet for a Sunday night. Normally the students would be taking full advantage of their day off to lounge about in the common areas, but it was perhaps not all that strange after Lupercalia. Probably there were more than a few couples who’d decided to spend the weekend together like she assumed Ambrose and Prudence were.</p><p>By the time she had managed to track Nick down to a quiet spot in the far stacks in the library, she was no longer feeling quite so fed up, nor quite so confident – the nervous clench in her belly coming sharp rather than hot.</p><p>He didn’t appear to have noticed her, hand buried in his hair as he stared down into the book in front of him.</p><p>“Figures you’d be the only one studying today,” Sabrina as she came up behind him.</p><p>Nick nearly flew out of his chair at the sound, and Sabrina bit down on a laugh at the indignity of his scrambling – only then he looked at her, and the spooked expression on his face immediately slapped all mirth out of her. She probably should have given the sneaking a pass after the events of the past few days.</p><p>”It’s just me.”</p><p>“When did you get so good at sneaking?” he grumbled as the alarm faded from his face and he settled back down by the desk as he gathered the papers and books that had been disturbed by his abrupt movements.</p><p>“Well, I have gotten a lot of practise the last few months,” Sabrina quipped and fought the urge to fidget while she tried to figure out where to sit. The chair next to him seemed too personal, but the chair on the opposite of the table seemed too far away.</p><p>Finally she climbed onto the table next to the books and notes in front of him.</p><p>“I just wanted to see if you were alright,” she said, echoing his first question to her when he’d showed up in her room.</p><p>“I’m just fine, Spellman.”</p><p>She grabbed the book closest to him, only for Nick to snatch it out of her hand right away, but not before she had caught the title of the spine. <em>When Friend Turns Foe: A treatise on corrupt bonds between witch and familiar.</em></p><p>The bottom dropped out of her stomach, and she caught a guilty flinch on his face before he looked up at her. Neither of them spoke. Sabrina expected she was the one who was going to have to break the silence, but to her surprise Nick was the first one to speak, low, barely above a whisper.</p><p>“I’m not great at sharing my feelings, Sabrina. It’s not a talent I’ve ever really developed.”</p><p>“You did pretty well at it two nights ago,” she remarked, fingers itching with the urge to trace her fingers over the bump of his knuckles, make him look at her.</p><p>“There were… extenuating circumstances.”</p><p>“You sure you don’t hate me for it?” she asked, the question itching all the way through her throat as she finally worked the question off her tongue.</p><p>“No, Sabrina,” he said with a sigh that petered off into a rough, short laugh. “I absolutely do not hate you.”</p><p>“What then?”</p><p>He looked up, dark eyes guarded and giving nothing away, and rather than answer, he picked up her closest hand, brought it to his mouth. She hadn’t realised her hands were cold before he pressed his lips to her fingers.</p><p>“So this isn’t it?” she asked, persistent in making him talk, eyes fixed on the pinkness of his lips, the paleness of her skin.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“This, what has been going on between us. You sure you don’t want to stop after what happened?”</p><p>“No, of course I don't,” he said, and she caught a brief glimpse of what appeared to be anxiousness on his face. “Do you? Is that what all these weird questions are about?”</p><p>“I don’t want Amalia to be all that you can see, when you look at me,” she said, twisting her fingers out of his grip, but Nick seemed to pick up on what she wasn’t saying.</p><p>“I’m not some clueless mortal bo…”</p><p>He broke of, swallowing thickly as if he had to physically restrain himself from saying anything else and more insulting about her ex. A moment passed before he spoke again, tone entreating now rather than outraged.</p><p>“Spellman, I’m a warlock, I got a high tolerance for the weird and the awful. It’ll take more to scare me off.”</p><p>“You sure about that?”</p><p>Rather than answer, he simply stared at her. Sabrina could feel the way his gaze dragged up her legs, her breasts. When he finally reached her face, and she met his eyes, the look in them made her throat go dry and derailed her thoughts.</p><p>Some feelings he certainly telegraphed shockingly well.</p><p>“Is it okay if I kiss you?”</p><p>Her breath turned rough and prickly in her chest, but Sabrina nodded, her heart rate starting a rapid gallop as he got to his feet, slowly – deliberately – warm hand skirting up her arm before tucking under her chin, angling her better for his mouth.</p><p>He was gentle, lips fluttering over hers as if testing out the waters after the emotional rollercoaster of the last few days, but it still conjured the same swoop of excitement in Sabrina’s belly, the same itchy eagerness under her skin.</p><p>“See, I still want to do this, I still want to be close to you,” he whispered against her mouth.</p><p>Sabrina shivered, bringing her hands up to fist them in the front his shirt, buttons clicking against her nails.</p><p>When the hand under her chin traced over her throat, reaching in to cradle her jaw, Sabrina leaned into it with a sigh, but Nick didn’t seem to be in any hurry to bring the heat. His kisses were fleeting and teasing with just a hint of tongue, enough to leave her flushed and panting – and then finally out of patience.</p><p>Sabrina sucked on his plush lower lip, and – feeling just a little vindictive – bit down. The effect was instantaneous. Nick moaned harsh and low in his throat when she pulled on his lip with her teeth, hips giving the smallest of thrusts, as if he couldn’t quite control himself. That was definitely new. With a hard tug on his shirt, she made Nick stumble in between her knees, one hand landing on her thigh to steady himself.</p><p>He didn’t remain passive for long, his grip on her thigh growing firmer, dragging her closer to the edge of the table. Her hips angled down into his as if on reflex, her own startled gasp at the sensation mingling with Nick’s muffled grunt.</p><p>The swoop was back in her belly and his mouth abandoned hers in favour of finding her neck and throat, lips warm and insistent over the flutter of her pulse. This time though, it felt more like she was plunging into a deep ravine head first at full speed, her whole body humming with adrenaline.</p><p>“Nick, I’m…” she whispered as she pulled away, sentence staying half formed as she caught sight of a very miffed looking Cassius over Nick’s shoulder.</p><p>“Mr Scratch, Miss Spellman,” the sound of Cassius’ dry voice was like a splash of cold water over the both of them, and Nick flinched away from her.</p><p>“You know better, both of you. Not here in the library. That’s what your private quarters are for, and we’re closing in ten minutes.”</p><p>“Sorry Cassius, we’ll be good,” Nick said when Sabrina was too busy ducking down behind him and cover up her blouse that she suddenly realised was half undone.</p><p>“Fuck, this has got to stop for us. I hate interruptions,” Nick laughed as he turned back to her, only for his laughter to fade as he took in Sabrina’s appearance. “Hey, you okay? You’re trembling.”</p><p>“I’m fine,” she muttered, trying to straighten her clothes, not even remembering if she or Nick had been the one to start unbuttoning.</p><p>“Is this not something you wanted?”</p><p>His mouth was just as swollen as hers felt, hair a mess, but unlike her, he didn’t seem the least bit concerned by his own sexed up appearance. Nick didn’t even make an attempt to clean her bright red lip stick off of his mouth or fix his shirt that had come partly undone with how hard she’d been yanking on it.</p><p>She wished he’d stop staring at her shaky attempts to button up her blouse, she could feel the weight of his gaze like a physical touch and she finally looked at him with a sudden snap of anger.</p><p>“I don’t like lies.”</p><p>“Okay…” Nick looked beyond confused now, hand reaching up to push his messed up curls back into place.</p><p>“I’ve discovered quite a lot of lies since I started on the path of night. And I don’t like that. I don’t like people lying to me.”</p><p>There was a long, breathless moment where Nick just stared at her, his expression more sphinx-like than she’d ever seen before, unreadable despite the flush in his cheeks. She resisted the urge to squirm, and stayed still until his eyes softened and he reached out to give a gentle tug on a lock of her hair.</p><p>”I’m not lying to you about this, Sabrina.”</p><p>”Yeah, but when you kiss me like that, you could probably make me believe anything,” Sabrina snapped half heartedly, the sudden spark of anger already sputtering out again.</p><p>”So you’re saying what exactly?” Nick asked, as he pulled back a bit further, legs brushing against her knees as he went. ”Do you want to dial the physical stuff back a bit? We can do that.”</p><p>“Yes," she began, and then only a second later. "No... maybe…," she said, circling through her confused instincts. "I don’t know, Nick.”</p><p>“Hey, hey, Sabrina, come here,” he moved back in, hands cupping her face.</p><p>“Just because it’s physical, doesn’t mean it’s untrustworthy.”</p><p>His mouth was very soft when he kissed her again, back to the same feather light kisses as before.</p><p>“See?” Another flutter of a kiss. “Just breathe, I got you.”</p><p>… Mouth hotter, more firm against hers…</p><p>“Anything you want.”</p><p>Sabrina leaned into it this time, Nick sighing darkly as their tongues met.</p><p>With Nick at the wheel – hand firm in her hair, on her upper arm – kissing him felt less diving off a cliff and more like stepping into a warm pool - heat spreading upwards from the tips of her toes until she was awash in it and clinging to Nick’s shirt front, her grip so tight she could hear the fabric protesting.</p><p>She was panting when he pulled away, and the intensity mounted in Nick’s eyes as he looked her over, thumb again coming up to rub over her swollen lips.</p><p>This time Sabrina swallowed around the nervous lump in her throat rather than bite him.</p><p>“Fuck, Spellman, I want to kiss you all over.”</p><p>She wasn’t quite sure how it was possible for her to flush more, but that certainly did it, her cheeks flaming as she took in that mission statement.</p><p>“I…”</p><p>She didn’t get to finish, the snap of Cassius’ voice interrupting and made them jump apart guiltily.</p><p>“What did I just say?”</p><p>He looked more exasperated than actually mad, and Sabrina had to swallow laughter back as Nick began to gather his stuff with a half hearted apology.</p><p>Sabrina was pretty sure she heard the librarian say “Every bloody year with these kids and Lupercalia. I swear to Satan,” as he locked the doors behind them.</p><p>She wasn’t quite sure if she was less confused when she made it back to the mortuary, but at least she felt surer now that Nick didn’t hold anything that had happened on Lupercalia against her.</p><p>Her lips tingled, she half expected to be able to feel them throbbing as she touched them, but they simply felt a little dry and a little tender after Nick’s very thorough goodbye on the academy’s steps before she’d staggered into a teleport spell.</p><p>The hallway was dark, but as soon as she tip-toed towards the staircase, she heard Ambrose’s voice, and Sabrina stuttered to a halt, feeling very much like she’d just been busted again. Nick was right. That really had to stop.</p><p>”Hello there, coz.”</p><p>Ambrose was casually sipping a cup of tea, dressed in her favourite golden robe of his as he appeared in the doorway to the kitchen.</p><p>”Just made a fresh pot, want a cup?”</p><p>While it sounded like an invitation, she was pretty sure a refusal wasn’t on the table, and so, cheeks flushing, Sabrina shuffled after him. He was quiet as he poured and added the milk and sugar he knew she preferred and Sabrina fought the urge to squirm</p><p>“You’ve been snooping, Sabrina.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“My room, my books.”</p><p>She thought back and winced when she remembered how carelessly she had discarded <em>that</em> collection of books after she’d been distracted by her thoughts of Nick. Normally she wasn’t so out of it when she went exploring.</p><p>“Right, so I was looking for one of your manuscript on binding spells, and…” she began, but Ambrose merely raised an eyebrow, and interrupted her without bothering to listen to the rest of her excuse.</p><p>“And you just happened to stumble upon my hidden collection of books on sex magic?”</p><p>“Ambrose.”</p><p>“Sabrina…”</p><p>It was annoying, really, how Ambrose managed to see through her with such ease. He knew all of her tells better than anyone else, probably because he was her dependable partner in crime in her most of her attempts to circumvent their aunts. Had been since was too little to reach the countertop and needed help stealing from aunt Hilda’s fresh batches of cookies.</p><p>“I’m not opposed to you being curious, but don’t you think you should learn to walk before taking off full sprint?”</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>Although Ambrose looked perfectly serious, there was a wicked glint in his eyes as he looked at her over the steaming teapot.</p><p>“I mean that it might be a bit early to consider experimenting with sex magic when you haven’t even sealed the deal with Nick yet.”</p><p>His words took her aback enough that she didn’t mange to disguise her reaction, hands jerking around her mug and sending the tea sloshing everywhere. Ambrose cleaned it up with a casual wave of his hand, the faintest hint of a smirk on his face as he topped off her now half empty mug.</p><p>“How did you know?” she finally said, too tired to make attempt at deflection.</p><p>“I’ve seen more than a few freshly deflowered witches, and you lacked that certain flush on Saturday morning.”</p><p>“Ew, Ambrose, too much information.”</p><p>Her cousin chuckled and went in search of the cookie jar, offering her one before settling back down at the table again, the amusement fading from his face as he watched Sabrina pick the sugar crystals off aunt Hilda’s cookies.</p><p>“You are okay, right? Nick doesn’t strike me as the kind of warlock who’ll muck up Lupercalia, but obviously something didn’t go according to plan.”</p><p>It was in moments like these, where Ambrose's words where the most casual, that it struck her just how well Ambrose knew what Nick was like in an intimate setting. Better than her probably. It wasn't a sore subject between them, not really, but but every once in a while there was a lingering awkwardness that reared its head at inopportune times. Like now. </p><p>“It’s kind of a complicated story.”</p><p>“I’ve got time,” he shot back and pulled his legs onto the bench, draping across it with loose limbed patience.</p><p>Telling Ambrose about Nick’s past seemed like an even bigger indiscretion than telling Roz, but Ambrose was a quiet an non-judgemental presence as she launched into the explanation again, this time not sparing any detail. After a bit of consideration she added their conversation in the library to the mix, and felt herself grow increasingly agitated and flustered under Ambrose's steady gaze as she described the encounter between her and Nick. Innocent, if not tame, by Ambrose's standards no doubt. </p><p>“Cousin…” he said as she finished off, his voice almost impossibly gentle for all the amusement he was feeling if the familiar tilt to his brows was anything to go by.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“I think you’re overthinking things in that busy brain of yours.”</p><p>“In what way?”</p><p>“Look, Nick obviously screwed up with the Amalia situation, but disregarding that, you’re dialling the emotional stakes up way, way too high here. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing just yet, you’re on the threshold of something new, trying to figure each other out. You got to leave room for that stuff.”</p><p>“Is that what you’re doing with Prudence?”</p><p>He grinned wickedly, and Sabrina rolled her eyes at the unspoken innuendo, but he was serious enough as he answered.</p><p>“Prudence and I both messy people, right now we’re just enjoying the ride to see if we’re the right kind of messy for each other for things to turn into something more.”</p><p>“I don’t think I’m cut out for casual,” Sabrina said, only for Ambrose to snort a laugh into his teacup.</p><p>“You’re sixteen, cousin, you don’t know what you’re cut out for yet. Trust me. Although from the look of you, Nick seems more than eager to help you figure it out.”</p><p>Automatically her hands flew up to cover her thoroughly kissed mouth and Ambrose crackled with glee as he ignored her attempts at protest.</p><p>“Oh, don’t start,” he said, waving off her protest. “It’s all natural after your dark baptism, I remember that feeling, like a big ol’ double tap on your hormones and passions.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>Ambrose’s wicked expression turned confused, eyes searching as he looked her over.</p><p>“The aunts didn’t tell you about that?”</p><p>Sabrina shook her head, but Ambrose’s words had triggered a vague memory of aunt Zelda saying something similar when she had gotten her first period three years back and gotten the first proper sex talk to go along with it. Though that conversation had apparently been embarrassing enough that she seemed to have lost vital information from it.</p><p>“Well your dark baptism didn’t happen under usual circumstances, it might just have slipped their minds,” Ambrose said with a shake of his head. “But it’s different for every witch and warlock. A heightened desire for pleasure isn’t necessarily part of the bargain, but it is for a lot of us.”</p><p>“But it’s not like witches have a monopoly on lust,” Sabrina interjected, knowing full well from her conversations with Roz that wasn’t the case.</p><p>“No, but there’s a reason why so many of us lose our virginities within a few weeks after our dark baptism. I certainly did.”</p><p>In a way it made sense that she wouldn’t have noticed until now if that was the case for her too. Her dark baptism had coincided with her break up with Harvey. She had been too miserable for a long while to think of anything but that - it was recent that those other feelings had begun to spring up again, mostly centered on Nick, although there had been that very intense incident with Harvey when they’d read for Romeo and Juliet together. That had certainly felt different than before her dark baptism as well.</p><p>“It makes sense that you’re overthinking it though,” Ambrose mused, interrupting her train of thought. “Your relationship with Harvey was dialled up so high by the end because he was a mortal and because of the pressure from the coven, but there’s not going to be that strain if you and Nick get together.”</p><p>“So you think Nick and I would be a good idea?”</p><p>“That’s not really for me say, cousin, you have to figure that out for yourself,” Ambrose said and grinned softly at Sabrina’s grimace at that response.</p><p>“But I do think it might be healthy for you to get involved with someone where the pressure isn’t mounted quite so high. Doesn’t have to be with Nick just because he was the first to show interest.”</p><p>“I want to touch him constantly though,” Sabrina confessed, gaze fixed on her teacup as she felt her cheeks grow crimson. “And I don’t know what to do with that. Kind of freaks me out a bit, like I can’t trust myself.”</p><p>“Well, your judgement was never that great to begin with,” Ambrose quipped and ducked out of the way when she flung her cookie at him.</p><p>“Stop breaking the baked goods, we’ve only got so many while Hilda is out of the house.”</p><p>“I’m being serious here, Ambrose.”</p><p>“I know, so am I!” he mock snapped back, but lifted his hands in surrender when she shot him a murderous look.</p><p>“Look if you’re skittish around him there’s always just taking it slow as the kids say. You don’t have to go at each other like rabbits just because you’re both witch kind. Take your time to figure things out, Satan knows you got a lot of it now.”</p><p>Her extended lifespan was not something she thought of most of the time. For all that she had lived with her aunties for sixteen years and had yet so see either of them gain any fresh wrinkles, and was used to used to hearing all of them coming with references to events decades in the past, the concept of a basically ageless existence was still such a foreign idea to Sabrina.</p><p>Although Ambrose was right, with her new powers she could in theory spent the next several decades dancing around Nicholas Scratch, if that was what she wanted. Extend the anticipation and the pleasure for years.</p><p>But then again, patience had never been her strongest suit.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I've started to draft the next and final chapter, and seems like I might have to bump up the rating to E - I still can't quite figure out how far I can push that M rating. </p><p>If that is something that makes you uncomfortable to read, I of course fully respect if you won't come back to the final chapter. In that case I just want to say thanks for coming along on the ride.</p><p>Also on <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/blog/unseemingowl">Tumblr</a>. Feel free to come and say hi :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Wolf Like Me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>In which there is more miscommunication, but Sabrina also discovers that Nick is a lot more talkative in some areas than others.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Here it is, the 17 page monstrosity of a final chapter in which Dorcas got a much bigger role than originally planned, at least indirectly. So much for just writing a few scattered missing scenes. Buckle up people. </p><p>I had not intended to get this graphic with it, but Nick Scratch has got a filthy mouth. In more ways than one. </p><p>I regret nothing.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Nick was almost ridiculously pleased with the book of Houdini stage tricks that he’d managed to find in Doctor Cerberus’. It was adorable really, Sabrina decided as she watched him sprawl into the booth, the coffee they’d bought to wait out the storm forgotten in favour of flicking through the pages.</p><p>Her own book lay abandoned as she watched him, distracted by the wild, curly mess his hair was drying into. Warlocks didn’t really do adorable, and Nick certainly didn’t, but somehow the word kept popping up more and more as she got to know him better.</p><p>Underneath all the swagger, conjuring and flirting, there was a Nicholas that she had only now started to realise how few people actually got to see. A Nicholas that she couldn’t help but refer to as her Nicholas in the privacy of her own thoughts, even as their communication had grated to an awkward thrust and parry over the last weeks, the lack of a formal relationship status the least of their problems.</p><p>And she had to admit that that Nicholas, her Nick, definitely seemed like the trustworthy companion that the tarot card reader had claimed he was.</p><p>“Sabrina?”</p><p>“Hmm?” she muttered, only half aware that he was speaking, thoughts once again spinning back to the cryptic warning in the cards and the woman’s calculating, green eyes.</p><p>“You’re staring.”</p><p>That got her attention, her elbow nearly slipping off the table in her haste to arrange herself into a position less dreamy eyed school girl, putting on her most teasing tone of voice when she replied.</p><p>“Am I?”</p><p>“Hard to miss,” he said, voice severe, but she could see the corner of his lips quirk up. “It’s like you’re poking me with your eyes. What’s on your mind?”</p><p>“It’s just,” she began, drawing out the words long enough that Nick finally looked up from his book, dark eyes curious, brows tilting up in a repetition of his former question before she continued. “I don’t know how I ever thought you were cool. You’re really a big nerd.”</p><p>A smirk crested over his face – there was the trickster quality again – book snapped shut around his fingers as he leaned forward in his seat.</p><p>“You should know by now that conjurers and demonologists are the toughest, coolest warlocks and witches there are.”</p><p>“You’re sounding way too defensive there, Nick,” Sabrina grinned. “You see the whole thing about being cool is that you shouldn’t really care whether or not you are.”</p><p>He was almost leaning all the way across the table by the time she finished speaking, dark eyes taking on that special kind of intensity she had learned to identify as his most flirtatious mode. There was nothing adorable about him now.</p><p>“Still managed to reel you in though,” he said, gaze dropping to her mouth, and Sabrina felt a spark of fresh interest, but Nick didn’t move forward to close the gap between them, simply settling back into the booth, watching her with a smirk that made her want to launch across the table at him.</p><p>Whether it was to shake him or to kiss him was still up in the air.</p><p>“Yes well, I’ve never been one of the cool kids,” Sabrina shot back, biting down on her now tingling lower lip.</p><p>“Bullshit, you’re the coolest person I know.”</p><p>As compliments went it was by no means his most extravagant one, but Sabrina still blushed at the casual sincerity behind it. The matter-of-factness of it.</p><p>“You think you’re real smooth.”</p><p>“Depends, is it working?”</p><p>Was it ever? That was the problem. The last two weeks seemed to have been consisting of nothing but Nick revving up her engine and then leave her idling. They’d barely even been alone together since their conversation in the library.</p><p>Rather than reply she picked up her coffee cup, staring at his mouth as she took a sip, and Nick’s smirk softened into a look intense enough to match the one she was sending his way.</p><p>“Hello my doves, the rain’s let up now if you want to head home.”</p><p>Hilda was poking round the corner, approaching them with the same caution that she had used around them ever since she’d walked in on them in bed together the morning after Lupercalia. Sabrina would probably have been more amused, if her and Nick had actually been doing anything that would warrant her aunt’s cautiousness.</p><p>“I’ll walk you home,” Nick said as he scooted out of the booth and Sabrina felt a drop in her belly, somewhere between anxious and expectant.</p><p>He hadn’t walked her home since the library happened, and alone time might be a thing that could be achieved at the Spellman House these days now that their lives had apparently turned into a romantic case of the Twilight Zone.</p><p>Ambrose who’d been so deprived of company for so long now had a surplus of lovers – Sabrina wasn’t quite clear on whether or not Luke was out of the picture or if it was a temporary thing. Or a polyamorous thing. Ambrose certainly was not making it easier figuring it out.</p><p>And now her aunt Hilda was the one who returned home with bruises in weird places, while auntie Zee was the one walking around humming to herself – although her humming was a lot more smug than Hilda’s loopy tunes ever had been.</p><p>… Humming over an engagement to Father Blackwood of all people, too. That was a whole can of worms in and of itself.</p><p>One Sabrina probably would have spent a lot more time ruminating over if her and Nick’s relationship hadn’t been so confusing. They seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time sniping at each other only to immediately apologise and then start flirting again before either one of them missed some kind of cue from the other and it all started back up again. Rinse. Lather. Repeat. The only time they seemed to get it right was when they weren’t talking at all.</p><p>Not that there had been much of that either – Nick had been gentlemanly, if not borderline chaste, since their tryst between the stacks, kisses only hinting at the underlying heat that Sabrina knew was there.</p><p>It didn’t help that the eyes of the weird sisters seemed to follow them wherever they went in the academy, stares accompanied by their sharp barbs and mocking laughter.</p><p>Neither of them had said anything, but she was sure that Prudence, Dorcas and Agatha knew what had happened during Lupercalia – or rather hadn’t happened – waiting to hold it over her head when they would gain the most effect from it.</p><p>It was like waiting for the drop of the guillotine.</p><p>With that in mind, she did not find the warning from the tarot card reader difficult to believe. Perhaps she was placing her distrust the wrong place like the old woman had said.</p><p>But was that really what her life had come to, taking advice on her love life from a kooky tarot card reader in the back of Doctor Cerberus'.</p><p>“You’re being unusually quiet, Spellman.”</p><p>She blinked, suddenly aware of her surroundings again. Obviously she’d been going by autopilot. They had long since crossed out of Greendale town, reaching the woods on the way to the mortuary, the air cold and damp around them.</p><p>“A lot on my mind lately,” she said with an apologetic shrug.</p><p>“Anything I can help with?”</p><p>“Oh you know, just the usual, busy thinking of ways to topple the church hierarchy, revolted at the idea of having Blackwood as my step uncle and wondering how to keep the weird sisters off my case,” she said, deciding to go for the easy breezy route rather than shatter the temporary truce between them right now.</p><p>“Right, so just an average Saturday in the life of Sabrina Spellman?” He laughed, slinging an arm around her shoulder to cinch her into his side. “I’m here, you know. If you need help on any it.”</p><p>“Like helping me hex Dorcas to stop her from staring daggers at me all the time?”</p><p>“She’ll get over it eventually,” he said with a resigned laughter, breath hot against her ear, and Sabrina shivered, only to stiffen up when he continued. “She always does.”</p><p>It was the confidence in the statement that did it. That kind of surety only came from knowing someone well. Intimately.</p><p>“You must have made quite an impression since they’re all three so possessive of you,” she said, spine growing more and more rigid. So much for keeping the peace.</p><p>“Was it always a group thing when you had sex with them, or did you sleep with them individually too? Is that why Dorcas is jealous?”</p><p>“Okay, wait a second here,” his arm slipped off her shoulder, and turned her around to face him properly.</p><p>Face to face was no fun. He could see how the sudden rush of jealousy made her flush and he could stare at her with a half affronted, half wounded expression on his face that made her feel mean spirited and unfair for asking the question.</p><p>“Where’s this coming from, Sabrina?”</p><p>“It seemed like it was personal to her, not just an attempt to spite me. So obviously there was something there, and it feels like you’re not telling me what it is.”</p><p>He was quiet for a moment, fingers running through his messy hair as the wounded look on his face morphed into something that looked a lot more like frustration.</p><p>“I did sleep with Agatha and Prudence outside of the previous Lupercalias, but I haven’t been with Dorcas like that. That was only when the three of us were having sex together.”</p><p>It shouldn’t sting the way that it did. After all she knew that he got around, she’d even walked in on him… getting around, but that had just been sex. What he was saying now sounded like it had been something else than four magic users getting each other off.</p><p>“So it wasn’t about the torrid thrill of group sex?”</p><p>“The sex helped,” he admitted with a scoffed laughter. “Suggestion amplified by physical contact is more effective. Alongside orgasm it’s incredibly potent,” he halted when Sabrina flinched. “You sure you want to hear this.”</p><p>“Yes.” No, most definitely not, but it felt too important to just close her eyes to it.</p><p>“I already liked Prudence and Agatha before they began working their mojo, so I didn’t notice the suggestion all that much with them, but when Dorcas got into the mix, I started to pay attention, because was never into her like that. So when she doubled down, tried to suggest something more, I really started to pay attention.”</p><p>“So is she actually in love with you?”</p><p>“I don’t think so,” Nick sighed heavily “My guess is that it’s a competitive thing. She doesn’t like the fact that I wanted Prudence and Agatha and not her. I think she takes that harder than the three of them did when they realised that I was no longer interested in them, but you.”</p><p>That would explain the barely restrained fury she could see whenever Dorcas looked at her, much worse than when Prudence had stared her down when she first arrived at the academy.</p><p>“Also,” he hesitated, only continuing when Sabrina raised her brows, prompting him to go on. “It might have made it worse when I turned her down during the hunt.”</p><p>“Wait, what?”</p><p>“Dorcas jumped me in the forest, that’s why I was late to find you.”</p><p>It was not unlike what she had thought had happened on the night before Amalia had come into the clearing. That Nick had decided against culminating the hunt with her and spend it with one of the more experienced witches. Partaking in the – what was it Zelda had called it? – orgiastic carnality instead of sealing the night with her in a more quiet corner of the forest.</p><p>“Why didn’t you tell me that?”</p><p>“Given everything else that happened that night, it didn’t seem all that important.”</p><p>“Dorcas tried to have sex with you and you didn’t think that was important to mention?”</p><p>“It doesn’t matter. I threw her off, I don’t want to have sex with her,” he was finally starting to sound just as exasperated as she was, his usual restrain cracking a little.</p><p>“You sure you didn’t want to. Have the fun of fucking someone more experienced than me before heading off to someone who hasn’t even jerked off a guy before.”</p><p>Her anger made her bolder, she didn't even blush saying the words out loud, but Nick didn’t so much as blink at her choice of language. He frowned as if she’d said the most incomprehensible nonsense he’d ever heard.</p><p>“Why the fuck would you think that I don’t want you?”</p><p>“Well, for one you’ve barely kissed me since we made out in the library.”</p><p>“Sabrina,” he reached forward and tugged her close, mouth stopping hers before she could say anything else.</p><p>Her angry words propelled her right into his tongue, his lips hard and insistent against hers. The heat sprung up between them again immediately.</p><p>Sabrina yanked on his hair, making Nick crush her to him, pockets of heat flaring to life all over her body – her thighs where she was pressed against him, her breasts rubbing up against his chest, the small of her back where Nick’s fingers were digging in, her ass when his hands travelled lower. She moaned, Nick answering her with a groan she more felt than heard before she pulled away, heart pounding.</p><p>“You can’t just shut me up like this. I have a right to my feelings,” she muttered affronted, pushing feebly at his chest, but Nick kept a hold of her arm, not letting her go.</p><p>“I know, I’m sorry, you do, but,” he licked his lips and Sabrina almost surged right back up to kiss him again. “I don’t want you to think that you don’t turn me on. I want you constantly, Sabrina. So fucking much, but said you wanted to dial the physical stuff back.”</p><p>“I said I didn’t know if I wanted to.”</p><p>“And you haven’t said anything since, so I’ve been keeping a lid on it.”</p><p>“Oh.”</p><p>“Right,” he laughed, the noise sounding only part amused, mostly frustrated. “If you knew what I want to do to you.”</p><p>The ‘what’ was on the tip of her tongue, a shiver of heat running through her, but she restrained herself. They were still in the middle of the woods where anyone could happen on them, and she was sick and tired of talking and kissing with Nick in front of other people.</p><p>“Come on.”</p><p>The house was silent when they made it back, no sign or sound of any of her family members and Sabrina sighed in relief that there would be no interruptions, and no weird sisters to glower daggers at them.</p><p>He reeled her back in, mouth soft and persuasive against hers, but now, after putting a bit of distance between them again, after her anger had faded, she couldn’t focus on the feel of his lips. Her body was too wired with too much new information, sending her prowling up and down her bedroom floor. She was only half aware that Nick had settled on the bed, watching her wear a hole in the carpet.</p><p>Knowing now what lay behind Dorcas anger towards her, towards them, made the fortune teller’s warning feel a lot more immediate. She had figured Prudence for the biggest danger, but now she was no longer quite so sure.</p><p>She had been stupid to forget that Dorcas and Agatha had been the ones to attack the mines. No input from Prudence necessary She wondered if Agatha really had been the one to come up with the idea – perhaps Dorcas was a lot more vicious than she had given her credit for.</p><p>“What’s on your mind Spellman?” Nick said, breaking through the fuzz of her thoughts when she finally calmed down enough to settle on the bed next to him.</p><p>His posture was relaxed, arm tugged behind his head, but he seemed almost anxious when she turned to her side to look at him.</p><p>“Nick, are you my boyfriend?”</p><p>His entire face softened, the anxiousness fading in favour of the barest hint of a smile that made Sabrina want to lean down and kiss him, taste some of the sweetness in his expression.</p><p>“Well I hope so.”</p><p>The kiss <em>was</em> sweet, Nick rising up readily to meet her halfway, but Sabrina wasn’t done. The apprehension returned to his face as soon as she pushed off of his mouth.</p><p>“In that case, I want you to do something for me. I need you to stay away from the weird sisters.”</p><p>“Don’t you trust me?”</p><p>The question had been indirect until now, she realised. All of their conversations since Lupercalia circling around it in one form or another, but it hadn’t been asked outright.</p><p>And she did trust him. She could feel it like a warm, soft flutter in her chest as she looked down at him. And perhaps more importantly she wanted to trust him. Sabrina was pretty sure he felt it too when she told him, his eyes brightening, warming even as she convinced him to sever ties with the weird sisters. Sealing it with a kiss that turned into one more.</p><p>And another one.</p><p>And another.</p><p>“Tell me again?” he whispered against her mouth, sounding just as breathless as she felt.</p><p>“I trust you, Nick.”</p><p>The mood shifted like she’d flicked a switch, delicacy gone in favour of something far more urgent as Nick groaned into their next kiss, tugging her deeper into his embrace.</p><p>She recognised the feeling from their tryst in library. The diving headlong off a cliff plunge in her stomach. But this time she followed it rather than let it convince her she was in the midst of doing something terrifying, struggling a leg over his side, fingers digging into his shoulder for a push to get him on his back.</p><p>It wasn’t necessary, Nick was more than willing to roll over, strong hands gripping her hips as he hauled her on top of him quickly enough that she somehow managed to elbow him in the stomach on the way. He laughed off her apology, seeming more interested in pushing up to catch her lips with his own again than humour her embarrassment.</p><p>And Nick was very good at making her forget things with his mouth, the slick rasp of his tongue against hers. She followed him readily when his fingers wound into her hair, tugging her head to the side, teeth and lips tracing over the raised tendons he’d pulled tight in her neck, sucked what felt suspiciously like a hickey into her throat.</p><p>He grinned when she pushed him down, his dark eyes bright under heavy lids, lips red and swollen from their kisses and Sabrina felt a hot, hungry clench in her belly at the sight.</p><p>“I was right. You do like to be in charge,” he remarked, grip circling her wrist, pressing her hands firmer down against his chest.</p><p>“Shut up,” she said, flushing at the implication in his words.</p><p>Judging from the playful look on his face though, he wasn’t going to stop, and Sabrina shifted her place on top of him to put some extra force behind the command, digging her knees into the mattress and marvelled as she watched it work.</p><p>His breath stuttered out of him when their hips lined up, grin melting away in favour of something hungry and wild. His entire body tensed as if fighting the urge to move, but he made no attempt to hide that he was obviously and brutally hard underneath her.</p><p>Her own hand was shaky when she tugged it free of his grip, fingers running down his chest. There was a crackle of power under her skin when she reached where his shirt rode up, and thrust her hand up under the fabric, scratching her nails over the flat plane of his abdomen, feeling the way it hollowed out with a shaky exhale at her curious touch.</p><p>"You're killing me here, Spellman," Nick growled, head dropping back onto the pillows, fingers reflexively tightening and loosening on her hips, not quite able to stop himself from pressing up against her.</p><p>"Well, you're mine now aren't you?"</p><p>"Yours to torment," he agreed with a punched out chuckle.</p><p>She swallowed his shaky laughter when she leaned down to kiss him again, chasing that hot, hungry urge to touch and kiss and bite – Nick's hips jerked under hers when she sucked viciously at his lower lip, remembering the effectiveness of that particular move.</p><p>This time Sabrina moaned into it, pressing back down against the stutter of his hips, pleasure and pressure mounting as she repeated the motion, Nick no longer passive, but bucking up against her.</p><p>"Fuck, Sabrina," he gasped against her mouth when she let up for a moment to look down at him, Glorious and messy looking, eyes glassy, face flushed from her attentions. "What do you want me to do here?"</p><p>"What do you mean?" she said, frowning and trying to concentrate on what he was saying instead of rolling her hips over the hard ridge of his erection like she wanted to.</p><p>"Do you want to do more? I could go down on you if you'd like that?"</p><p>"I... What," she stuttered, her momentum stalled at the sudden flood of embarrassment when his gaze flickered down to where her thighs were spread wide around his hips.</p><p>By the time his eyes met hers again, she felt as though her face was on fire.</p><p>It was one thing knowing that this was the kind of frank discussion people had with each other in bed, but it was another thing to actually participate in it, to hear Nick say those things without any shame whatsoever.</p><p>"I just really want to make you feel good. " Nick said, voice as persuasive as she’d ever heard it.</p><p>"But what about you then?" She blurted out, forcing herself to look at him rather than at some point over his shoulder like she wanted to until she could stop blushing quite so hard.</p><p>He laughed, "I'm good for now, and besides if you keep dry humping me like this, I think I'm going to pass out."</p><p>"Am I doing too much?" She hesitated, a sudden, unpleasant thought coming to her. "Too little?"</p><p>"I'll take anything you'll give me," he assured her with a warm grin. "But you’ll like my option better. I swear.”</p><p>"Nick, I…" she trailed off again, wishing she could make her thoughts stop racing a million miles per hour, feel less like she was going to fly apart at any moment.</p><p>Nick frowned.</p><p>"Am <em>I</em> doing to much?"</p><p>"No, it's just," she licked her lips anxiously before admitting. "I'm nervous."</p><p>The eager look on his face softened, a hand coming up to cradle her cheek, brush a thumb over her cheek. The move disarmingly non-sexual considering the situation.</p><p>“How about we take it nice and slow, see what works for you? We can stop whenever you’ll like, okay?”</p><p>"Okay,” Sabrina agreed.</p><p>When she leaned down to kiss him again, the suggestive curl of his tongue somehow seemed even more obscene after what he’d offered to do to her. She could feel her entire body grow heavier, pressing down against him, Nick moaning softly into her mouth.</p><p>Before she could overthink it any more, Sabrina sat up straight, relishing in the sharp gasp from Nick as she shifted her weight and whipped her top off, headband coming off along with it. He looked delighted as he rolled them over, and Sabrina nearly choked on her own gasp when Nick’s hips pressed flush against her, the pressure a lot harder than when she’d been on top.</p><p>“I’ve been wondering how far down that blush went,” he muttered, almost as if to himself, fingers tracing over her cheeks, her neck, her breastbone.</p><p>Sabrina had never really liked how easily she blushed, but when Nick chased it with his lips, mouth skimming over the edge of her bra, tongue rasping over her nipples through the thin lace, she could see some advantages to it.</p><p>Her legs wound around his waist, cinching him even closer and rocking up against him. The pressure increased until she let out an incoherent whimper, but then Nick was pushing her legs away, breaking the contact.</p><p>“Give me a second here,” he grunted, rolling off of her and covered his face, breath heaving out of him like he’d just run a mile.</p><p>The thrill of power seeing him come undone was enough to keep her hands off of him, although her entire body was screaming in protest. It wanted more contact, not less.</p><p>“Having a bit of trouble there, Scratch?”</p><p>“Shut up,” he said with a shaky laugh. “Not my fault my girlfriend is a merciless minx.”</p><p>Girlfriend sounded good coming from his mouth, and it was that more than anything that urged her closer to him, made her fingers tiptoe across his chest, tug him a bit closer</p><p>“Got any complaints?”</p><p>He rolled back on top of her, swallowing her surprised squeal with his mouth, hands a lot more forceful now as he smoothed them over her sides, thumbs pressing into her waist before he stroked his fingers over the button to her jeans.</p><p>“No complaints from me,” he muttered, looking down at her, and Sabrina nodded an agreement to the wordless question.</p><p>Her stare was glued to his hands as he popped the button and pulled down the zipper with such agonising slowness that she was panting with anticipation before he had even pulled her jeans down.</p><p>"I'm going in," Nick said, and Sabrina laughed despite herself, nerves making her sound way girlier than usual.</p><p>"You sound like you're in a cheesy heist movie,"</p><p>"And what am I stealing? Sabrina Spellman's precious virtue?"</p><p>"You did not just say that,” she began laughing in earnest. "You're not stealing anything, I'm very enthusiastically letting you at it.”</p><p>“Enthusiastically, huh?” Nick chuckled.</p><p>Only his laugh cut off as his fingers finally slipped into her underwear and Sabrina stalled in her own giggles. This was all uncharted territory, the feel of his fingers sliding over her hipbone, snagging against the elastic of her underwear. Her breath hitched when she felt his fingers press up against her, and realised how wet and swollen she had become.</p><p>"Nick?" she quizzed after a moment.</p><p>"Yes?"</p><p>"You're not moving your hand."</p><p>"I know, just savouring the moment here."</p><p>"Well, how about you get on with it."</p><p>"Like this?"</p><p>Sabrina didn't answer; too busy moaning as he began moving his fingers, circling carefully before first one, then two fingers slipped into the eager clutch of her body. The feeling was somehow all at once familiar and completely foreign to when she did it to herself.</p><p>“Fuck, Spellman, you’re so wet. That all for me?”</p><p>“You got to stop saying things like that,” she protested, the effect somewhat ruined by her breathless moans, the way she clutched at his arm.</p><p>”Why?” he asked, and Sabrina was relieved to hear how shaky his own voice sounded.</p><p>”It’s embarrassing.”</p><p>”It’s embarrassing that I turn you on?”</p><p>”No, but I…” Sabrina began, the words stuttering out of her when Nick’s fingers rubbed against somewhere inside her that Sabrina had never been able to reach herself, but felt so good her eyes practically rolled back in her head.</p><p>“Is it embarrassing that I want to know what your cunt tastes like?”</p><p>”Nick!”</p><p>He laughed, soft and low, lips finding the pulse in her throat, mouth and tongue hot against her, and Sabrina jerked against him when his thumb slotted into place on her clit, somehow managing to keep up the pressure there as the fingers inside of her picked up speed.</p><p>Her legs were starting to shake like they did when she was approaching a really good orgasm when she touched herself, her breath short and prickly in her chest as she fisted her hand in his shirt.</p><p>”You’re almost there, aren’t you?”</p><p>“Yes, Nick, please.”</p><p>He stopped moving.</p><p>She moaned in protest, but Nick simply chuckled as he pulled his hand out of her underwear. "You'll like the next part even better, I promise."</p><p>Her legs felt lead-heavy and uncooperative when he began pulling off her panties. The rush of air against her sex – her cunt, she reminded herself – suddenly made her very conscious of the fact that she was all but naked, but Nick hadn’t even removed his shirt.</p><p>"Nick?"</p><p>"Yeah?"</p><p>"Could you," she swallowed thickly. "Could you take off some of your clothes off as well?"</p><p>He looked down himself as if only now realising he hadn’t taken anything off as he was helping her out of her clothes.</p><p>"Of course," he paused for a second. "Want to help me with the belt?"</p><p>She yanked at the belt buckle with shaky hands as Nick shrugged out of his shirt and undershirt. He pushed the jeans off himself, and she could barely figure out where to look. After all the build up, it felt like a much more intense experience seeing him this undressed than it had been during Lupercalia. All of a sudden she understood his impulse to want to kiss her all over. There was so much warm, beautiful skin on offer.</p><p>"Better?"</p><p>“Much.”</p><p>Following his lead, Sabrina let him push her back into the pillows, shivering at the sensuous slide of skin on skin contact as he moved downwards, kissing his way down her chest, belly, planting a warm, open mouthed kiss in the crease of her hip. Sabrina tensed. It was really happening, she was naked and there was a boy between her thighs, a boy who was going to go down on her, a boy who…</p><p>"You still okay up there?” Nick had stopped kissing her hip and Sabrina swallowed thickly before looking down.</p><p>The visual of Nick Scratch between her thighs was… something… to say the least, his hair all messed up, curls falling into his face, his mouth red and shiny. She nodded.</p><p>“You sure? You don’t want to stop?”</p><p>“No, I want you to keep going, Nick,” she whispered, and then, teeth pinching down on her lower lip, she spread her legs wider, her cheeks practically glowing she was so turned on. “Please.”</p><p>“Fucking hell, Sabrina,” he muttered, eyes no longer on her face, but far lower and Sabrina shivered when she felt him breathe over her.</p><p>He pushed her legs apart even further, helping her drape them over his shoulders as he gave her inner thigh a hot, sucking bite for good measure on his way to his actual destination. The pounding of blood in her ears made her feel deaf, only for the sound and sensation to come roaring back in when Nick surged forward and licked into her.</p><p>For a moment she wasn’t quite sure she liked it, the feel of his mouth on her too strange, too weird as he gently worked her open to him, but then the flat of his tongue pressed against her clit and Sabrina’s hips jerked.</p><p>He wasn’t careful after that. His mouth – and the fingers he slipped inside her – relentlessly working her over as he pinned her down with a heavy arm across her stomach.</p><p>In some distant part of her brain, she realised that he was paying the same single-minded attention to this task as he did to a complicated spell, giving her no respite as he worked at solving the problem of making her come, groaning encouragement when she fisted her hands in his dark hair and her legs began to shake again.</p><p>The tension was pulled so tight it almost hurt, and her moans turned to whimpers when he lifted his mouth from her.</p><p>“Babe, just breathe, relax, I got you.”</p><p>She sucked in a harsh gulp of air as he ordered, another one, and Nick bent down to continue as she breathed into it. The sharp edge of her pleasure softened, widened and then finally crashed through her like a wave, making Sabrina’s entire body jerk on the bed – she bit down on her moans; pretty sure she would wake all of Greendale if she didn’t.</p><p>When her shivers calmed down enough, she looked down between her thighs where Nick was pulling himself into a seated position as he wiped at his face, dark eyes dazed, mouth wet and swollen.</p><p>“Babe is new,” she whispered, struggling for something to say after what had just happened.</p><p>He chuckled, climbing up the length of her body, peppering her belly and breasts with kisses as he went.</p><p>“Yeah, something I’m trying out. Working for you?”</p><p>“I don’t hate it,” she said, pulling him in for a kiss as soon as he moved up, frowning at the unfamiliar taste of herself on his tongue, but Nick’s mouth was as persuasive as ever and Sabrina soon lost herself to it, nails scratching across his shoulders, provoking a lovely, full body shudder from him.</p><p>Nick was tense though, and it took her an embarrassingly long moment before she remembered why he was so careful about keeping his hips away from her body.</p><p>“Nick, you’re…”</p><p>“It’s fine, you don’t need to feel obligated to do anything,” he rushed out, silencing her inquisitiveness with another kiss that made her toes curl despite how heavy and sated she felt.</p><p>The sentiment was lovely – he was almost being unreasonably lovely given what she had always been told to expect from this kind of situation, but then again, Nick was not a mortal teenage boy. Nor was he inexperienced like she was.</p><p>In fact, Sabrina swallowed nervously at the thought, he was used to lustful witches and warlocks who knew what they were doing when they touched him. Someone like Dorcas would probably know what to do.</p><p>“What’s going on inside that busy brain of yours,” Nick muttered, interrupting that particular unpleasant train of thought.</p><p>“Could I,” she whispered, lips feeling numb as she stumbled over the words. “Could I maybe watch you… you know… while you do it to yourself.”</p><p>His dark eyes glinted dangerously, but he didn’t hesitate when he reached down to get rid of his boxers, finally naked next to her.</p><p>She couldn’t really decide where to look first, somehow it seemed rude to just stare at the cock she could see was very clearly very hard out of the corner of her eye. So she looked him in the eye first, licking her lips, which only made Nick’s eyes darken more before dragging her gaze down his body.</p><p>“You’re really something, Nick,” she said and caught his appreciative chuckle as he closed his hand around his erection.</p><p>“I’m really on edge though, Spellman, not sure how much of a show it’s going to be,” he gasped as his hand slowly began moving, moan tacked on the final syllable. “But I don’t usually come this fast. I’ll make it last for you if we ever have sex.”</p><p>As she watched him jerk himself off with wide eyes, she decided she’d been wrong. Hearing him saying those things wasn’t embarrassing. Nick’s complete lack of shame when describing anything sexual was intoxicating. She wondered if he could teach her, stop her from being so tongue tied if she wanted to reciprocate and tell him that the way his lips parted and his eyes fell half closed as he touched his own cock was just about the hottest thing she’d ever seen.</p><p>“How would you like to do it?” she asked, moving closer, stroking her fingers up his arm, feeling the muscles in his forearm working.</p><p>“Not so embarrassed now, huh Spellman?” he laughed, voice shaky, but he didn’t disappoint, licking his lips before continuing. “I’d want you on top. You could be in charge, ride me just how you’d like it. You’d feel so good like that, so powerful.”</p><p>“I’d like that,” she stuttered, caught between staring at his hands and the way his face transformed as his pleasure mounted.</p><p>Sabrina reached behind her, fumbling with the clasp of her bra, which she was somehow still wearing after everything. The look on his face as he stared at her made her breath catch, and with a sudden rush of boldness, she pushed his hand out of the way, only to be startled by the weight and heat of his cock in her hand. </p><p>As it turned out, seeing it done and doing it herself was two very different things, and she winced as she struggled to find the rhythm he’d used.</p><p>“You’re doing great,” Nick gasped, eyes wild as he looked up at her, his hand closing around her fingers, guiding her into the right tempo.</p><p>It didn’t take long, just a few more strokes and then he was twitching in her hand, coming as he swore through clenched teeth. His neck drew beautifully taut as his head tilted backwards on the pillow.</p><p>She leaned down to drag her lips and teeth over his throat, and remembering the hickey he’d given her earlier, gave him one to match.</p><p>He finally stirred under her mouth and hands, a sharp intake of breath echoing against her ear as he reached for his discarded undershirt to wipe them off. His eyes were a little dazed, the smile on his face one she would almost characterise as goofy if he hadn’t pulled her in for a lazy, thorough kiss.</p><p>"Nick," she whispered as he let up, mouth still close enough for them to share breath.</p><p>"Yeah?"</p><p>"Why not, you know, actual sex?"</p><p>"You don't think this was sex?" He said, pushing himself up into a seated position, brushing the hair out his face.</p><p>"You know what I mean."</p><p>"Well, I figured my odds of getting you naked again would be higher if I busted out some of my better moves from the start," he said, playfully waggling his brows at her.</p><p>"I'm being serious," Sabrina insisted, shivering when his hand began tracing over the curve of her side.</p><p>"Sure I'd like to have proper sex with you Spellman, but I'm really not in a rush. Especially not when we can still do this kind of stuff,” he said, face lighting up in a wicked grin as he continued. “I mean, it didn't sound like you were disappointed."</p><p>"No, I wasn't. Not at all," Sabrina agreed, flushing at the memory of seeing Nick's face between her thighs, feeling his mouth on her. "You sure you weren't?" she asked, feeling very conscious of the fact that she hadn't reciprocated in the same manner.</p><p>“Sabrina,” he lifted her hand, pressing a kiss to her knuckles, the soft inner side of her wrist. “Watching you trying to figure out how to please me with those clever little hand of yours was one of the hottest things I’ve ever seen.”</p><p>He lifted a hand to trace over the fresh flush in her cheeks, down over her neck and brushed across her breast.</p><p>"Seeing this," he said. "How much you blush when I talk dirty to you. I love that I’m able to make you tongue tied."</p><p>Sabrina opened her mouth to answer, but Nick stopped her mouth with another kiss before she could say anything else, long enough and intense enough that she gave up on her comeback by the time they both came back up for air.</p><p>“I really like being close to you, Sabrina,” he whispered.</p><p>From the tone of his voice she gathered he wasn’t talking about their actual physical closeness, the slide of his hip against her thigh, the press of her breasts against his chest, but the connection that had bubbled up between them over the last few months.</p><p>“Amalia tried to stop me from getting close to anyone, but I think I used it as an excuse not rely on anyone else either. Not let anyone in.”</p><p>It wasn’t just the adorable nerdiness that made him her Nicholas, she realised as she watched him speak. It was the open, vulnerable look she could see on his face now. The expression was delicate, like fine china, and – Sabrina suspected – was just as prone to shatter unless handled with a soft touch.</p><p>His eyelids fluttered closed when she ran her fingers across his brows, smoothed the line between them, traced her thumb over the bridge of his nose, his plush lower lip.</p><p>“Hey Nick.”</p><p>He opened his eyes again, now bright, the look on his face morphing into something new, something sweeter.</p><p>“Yeah?”</p><p>“I like being close to you too.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I usually just write fanfic for myself with no expectations of having readers, but it’s been such a blast having you guys check into this. You’re all so lovely. Seriously. </p><p>And given I’ll be working from home for the next two weeks due to the corona virus, and keeping to the recommendation of social distancing, I’m gonna have a lot of free time on my hands. So keep checking back. I might start up a new story. </p><p>At least I’ve got a few ideas up my sleeve.</p><p>Until then, I'm also on <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/blog/unseemingowl">Tumblr</a>. Feel free to come and say hi :)</p>
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